I am delighted to start the second half of term with some fantastic news about our pupils’ achievements! We have our first Scholarships of 2025: Elizabeth in 8A has been awarded an Academic Scholarship, and Gabs in 8A has been awarded an Art Scholarship. As is traditional at St Christopher’s, we fly the school flag for a day each week in honour of those who achieve great success. Over the coming weeks, if you see the school flag flying instead of a House flag, ask your child who it is for and what it celebrates. I want our whole community to know and to be proud.
We are also celebrating a splendid performance in the first round of the prestigious Townsend Warner Prep Schools’ History Prize, established in 1885. Six of our pupils took part in the fiendish short answer question paper, which tests knowledge of dates, events, and names. Special mention goes to Ruby, who has made it to the final round whilst in Year 6. Our overall performance was the best across the four Brighton College Prep Schools, and Stanley in 8H was placed 7th overall nationally, highly impressive in a competition with around 1500 entrants each year.
The time of year when the Scholarship awards start to be announced, by its very nature, brings a mixture of results. Not everyone who applies for a Scholarship can win one, in the same way a competition in which everybody wins is not a competition at all. There is a great deal of the unknown involved in putting yourself forward for a Scholarship. How many other people will apply? What are the candidates from other schools like? Will I end up competing against someone I know? This is daunting, even before you consider the prospect of a formal interview, an audition on stage, or a day’s training session, all under close scrutiny.
My advice is that, if you never put yourself forward, you will find it very hard to move forward. Let’s take the metaphor of a sports team. Let’s say they decide not to enter a tournament, knowing that the opposition will be tough, their chances of winning slim, the journey a long one, and that they will be disappointed not to take the trophy home. But then victory goes to a team they have beaten in the past. How many times will they play over the “What if?” moment in their heads? As an adult, you certainly don’t get every job you apply for, but to not send your CV assuming that you wouldn’t get the job is to guarantee that you don’t.
Every single child applying for an award should see it as a positive experience. Even if no Scholarship is forthcoming at the end, your art portfolio, interview, audition, or training session has put you – and your talents – very firmly on the radar of your senior school. Every interview you attend prepares you better for the next one, and every setback builds resilience for future events in your life’s journey. This mindset helps through prep school, senior school, university, and beyond into the world of work.
Ms Elizabeth Lyle, Head